“Wake up, we need you with us!”
My mind was muddled, where was I? My body was heavy. The first thing I could feel was the warm stream of blood trickling down my head. Then the pain, a throbbing growing more painful with each pulse. I felt my temple, the warm blood coating my hands.
“We need to go quick!”
The man who was shouting at me looked so worried. He didn't look that old, but his face was creased with years of stress and hardship. He was pulling at my arm now trying to yank me up. I tried to stand, but my legs hadn't woken up yet. I tumbled over taking the man down with me.
Phoomp!
We landed softly on a bed of moss and soft dirt, my eyes started to adjust to the dim light. The figures of bodies lay around us like children's toys that have been thrown around a room. We were in a large cavern, lit up by bioluminescent plants and mushrooms.
“Crow, stand the fuck up!” He shouted after picking himself back up.
Crow? Is that me? My head throbbed, I can't remember who I am. Head trauma, with the amount of blood I've lost I'm surprised I'm even alive. I stood on my own this time.
“I’ve got amnesia, I can't remember anything.”
The man's face was swallowed by despair. The small flicker of light in his eyes seemed to go out.
“Fucking perfect. We're dead then.”
As if on queue laughter echoed around us, laughter that was full of mischief but soaked with bloodlust. The man I was with sat down on the moss, he had given up. I remember a voice, telling me that blood was the solution, I don't remember who’s.
“Cover yourself in blood.” I told him.
“Blood? These things can probably smell it for miles.”
“Do it!” I commanded.
He did not question me, but went to the closest body, cut new wounds on it with his army knife and poured the blood over his hair and his clothes.
“They are looking for the living, so we will smell like the dead. Probably why I survived.”
“Glad to see that you haven't lost yourself with your memories.” He grinned.
Life was beginning to return to his eyes.
“We must go, now!”
My body moved on memory, I didn't know where it would take me. I just knew if I stayed up here I would die. We broke off from the cavern into small tunnels, weaving up and down. Occasional blood streaks marked areas where bodies have been dragged. Laughter again echoed through the tunnels behind us, further than before. We were gaining distance, but from what I couldn't remember. Our path came to a dead end. A human arm was sticking out from a pile of stone and debris from where the tunnel collapsed.
“Crow, what do we do next?” My companion asked, worried.
The arm of the man in the rubble was cold, he didn't die recently. I looked under his wrist, his tattoo of a pickaxe and a drill was covered in dried blood.
“He was part of the mining team. Let's dig him out, he might have our ticket out.”
I looked down to my own wrist, a tattoo of a gun and sword crossed together, above the weapons was a crown. Assault team leader Crow. That's who I am. I started to remember but I could not shake the ominous feeling that I was still forgetting the most important things. What are we running from? What killed my men, how did I survive?
We went to work lifting rocks and sliding boulders out of the way. A smile crossed my face as we found what we needed. Three packets of plastic explosives.
“Crow, if we use these we might cave the tunnel in on ourselves.”
“Want to test your luck out there with them?”
He took a nervous look at the path that we came from.
“No sir.”
He said and started arming the charges. We took cover further down the path.
“Ready on three. Three, two, one.”
Boom
We could feel the vibrations through the floor and walls. But so could they, the laughter started again, louder and faster.
“They're coming, move!”
We ran to the site of the explosion, and there was a small enough hole to crawl through. We squeezed through and ran as fast as we could, as the tunnel wound up to the surface. I was outpacing my partner almost moving twice as fast. I shouldn't be able to run this fast, I was too strong. I dont think ive ever run this fast. Something is wrong. I stopped to wait for him.
“Crow keep going, don't wait, get help!”
I bounded ahead, seeing the faint trickle of sunlight start to bleed into the cave. I just realized the tunnels had no light but I could see fine. I slowed down to a walk. My partner caught up to me, breathing heavily.
“What's your name?” I ask
“Codename hyena, assault squad.”
“Hyena, I need your gun.”
He handed his pistol over to me, with a confused look on his face. Laughter echoed out from behind us again, causing my body to shake.
“The creatures are parasites, they attach themselves to living hosts.”
Hyena looked at me with a growing sense of dread.
“But you lead us here, you can't be.”
“They want to get to the surface, but they can't survive on their own.”
Laughter again, but this time it came from my own throat.
Hyena looked at me in horror. I put the gun to my temple.
“Head trauma slowed down its take over of my body, my brain was so banged up neither it nor me had control. But now that I'm remembering, it is too. Take this information to the surface, that's my last order for you.”
He looked at me with eyes full of sadness for the times we fought together that I can't yet remember. This isn't the first time he's seen his fellow men die and it likely won't be the last. Before pulling the trigger I remembered the smile of a gorgeous woman, the memory of her made my whole soul ache.
“I think I had a wife. Let her know.”
“Inner breast pocket sir.”
I reached and found a photo of her, smiling at me. I took it on our honeymoon. All the memories started to return. With my mind filled with the memories of time we spent together I squeezed the trigger.
Kommentare